Technologies for capturing and storing handwritten notes include digitized writing surfaces such as electronic whiteboards or SMARTBOARDS.TM.. These electronic whiteboards typically either photocopy an entire writing surface or serve as the actual input device (e.g. an electronic template) for capturing the handwritten data. The whiteboards may be active or passive electronic devices with a surface on which the user writes with a special stylus. The active devices may be touch sensitive, or responsive to a light or laser pen wherein the whiteboard includes a detector that detects the active signal. The passive electronic boards tend to use large, expensive, board-sized photocopying mechanisms.
Typical whiteboard systems are large, cumbersome, expensive and immobile.